Frenchman escapes lead group in the final ten kilometres; Bradley Wiggins defends lead in the mountains

Arthur Vichot (FDJ-BigMat) took the biggest victory of his career to date in the fifth stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné, between Saint-Trivier-sur-Moignans and Rumilly. The 23-year-old Frenchman escaped from the rest of an eight-man breakaway group with just over seven of the stage’s 186.5km remaining and, with little cohesion in the chase behind him, held them off to the finish.

Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) led the chasers over the line, 25 seconds back, ahead of Dimitri Fofonov (Astana), at the end of the race’s first big mountain stage.

“This is my first win in the World Tour, it comes at the Dauphiné, this is a mythical race in France and I’ve done it alone,” said an ecstatic Vichot after the stage. “This is magic! It’s a reward for all my personal efforts and those of my team. It’s a beautiful day for all of us at FDJ-BigMat.

“We’ve had a lot of troubles this week with Pierrick Fedrigo hurting his knee, Arnold Jeannesson being in a phase of preparation and Nacer Bouhanni not having luck on his side in the sprints,” he added. “We really wanted to do well today in an undulating stage exactly like what we like with high chances for the breakaway to be successful. I was scared of the pure climbers in the Grand Colombier but it went well.

“I knew that I was the fastest sprinter in that group but the cooperation wasn’t very good, so I remembered how my friend Anthony Roux won a stage at the Tour of Spain three years ago by taking the initiative. I decided to do the same. I was hoping to enter the circle of the world’s top cyclists. It’s a little step that I have taken today. I’m delighted.”

Behind the break race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) managed to see off attacks from Tour de France champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), and ninth place overall Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank). The main contenders in the race were led over the line by green jersey Tony Gallopin (RadioShack-Nissan), 59 seconds behind Vichot, and the British champion ended the day with his overall lead intact.

With Vichot, Martinez and Fofonov in the break of the day were Alberto Losada (Katusha), Kévin Reza (Europcar), José Sarmiento (Liquigas-Cannondale), Rémi Di Gregorio (Cofidis), Daniel Navarro (Saxo Bank), and Maxime Médérel and Fabrice Jeandesboz (both Saur-Sojasun). The ten riders escaped shortly after the first climb of the day to the Côte de Corlier after almost 60km, and were allowed to build a lead that reached six minutes in the middle of the stage.

Reza was dropped on the climb of Le Grand Colombier, while Jeandesboz suffered a late puncture, leaving eight riders to fight out the victory.

The counterattack from Evans, in a group that also included Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) on the technical descent that followed. They managed to get more than a minute clear as the stage entered the final 50km, but was closed down quickly by Wiggins’ Sky team.

In the final 30km another counterattack got clear, containing ninth place Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank), but it too was neutralised in the flat approach to the finish. There was little desire to close down the original break however, and Vichot managed to escape to take the stage.

The mountains finally arrive for a Tour de France rehearsal

After some opportunities for the sprinters and the previous day’s time trial, stage four was to be the first of three tough days in the Alps for the 2012 Dauphiné. The day’s course was to be a significant one, since much of it would form stage ten of the Tour de France. All of the day’s climbs would feature in July; most tellingly, the hors category Grand Colombier, which was to make it’s Tour debut this year.

The race covered 48.3km in the first hour, with several unsuccessful attempts to escape the peloton. A group briefly broke clear on the 2nd category Côte de Corlier after 57km but, after Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) led over the top, to retake the lead in the polka-dot mountains jersey classification, the peloton was all together once more.

Finally, on the false flat to the unclassified Col de la Berche, Fofonov, Reza, Sarmiento, Di Gregorio, Martinez, Vichot, Navarro and Jeandesboz escaped, with Losada and Médérel quickly bridging across. Once the break had formed, it was allowed to go, and at the similarly unclassified Col de la Lèbe after 77km the ten riders were five minutes clear.

Through the feedzone at Béon - which would also be used in the Tour - after 97.5km, the gap was up to six minutes, and shortly afterwards they began the 17.4km climb to Le Grand Colombier.

As the peloton hit the base of the climb, Maxime Bouet and Mikael Chérel (both AG2R La Mondiale) set off in pursuit of the breakaway. Rémi Pauriol (FDJ-BigMat), Brice Feillu (Saur-Sojasun), Alexandre Geniez (Argos-Shimano) and Marco Marzano (Lampre-ISD) soon chased and joined them.

Team Sky was controlling the peloton and, as Christophe Kern (Europcar) jumped across to join them, the chase group began to pull away. As Reza - who had initiated the break in the first place - was dropped from the front group, his teammate Kern struck out at the head of the chase group, pulling Feillu with him.

Behind them, as Team Sky continued to set the pace, the peloton was reduced to just fifty riders; among the big names to have been dropped were Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and eighth overall David Millar (Garmin-Barracuda). French champion Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), who was sitting fourth overall after the time trial, was also beginning to slip backwards as the peloton hit the final five kilometres of the climb.

With Kern and Feillu still in pursuit of the original break, the rest of the chase group was pulled back by the peloton. Sarmiento took the points over the top, ahead of the rest of the group, and was now just three points behind Kadri. Reza followed his former companions 55 seconds behind; Kern and Feillu were still 3’05” back, with Team Sky leading what was left of the peloton just 50 seconds behind them.

Nobody attacks on the way up Le Grand Colombier but Evans and Nibali attack on the way down

Initially, the group also contained Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), who took up a monitoring position at the back, but the Norwegian soon sat up to wait for the peloton and help with the chase.

The Evans/Nibali group soon made contact with Kern and Feillu, and began to make inroads on the leaders. Team Sky was not keen to allow Evans much freedom however, and after the group got a minute clear on the descent, the black, white and blue team began to close it down again.

With 50km to go - on the climb to the Col de Richemond - Evans’ group was just 1’33” behind the leaders, with the peloton at 2’15”, but the gap was rapidly shrinking. Hincapie and Nerz had already dropped back, having given their all in the counterattack’s early stages, but the rest of the group was still hovering a few seconds ahead.

With the group in sight, Wiggins himself jumped across, followed by Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) and Wiggins’ teammate Michael Rogers. As they crossed the top of the climb the BMC Racing riders were continuing their strong pace, and the gap to the leaders was down to 57 seconds. Sarmiento had taken the points, and thus secured the red and white polka-dot jersey.

The counterattacks continue but nobody can catch the original break

There was a fresh attack from Kashechkin on the descent and, as the Kazakh was pulled back, another counterattack went clear. The new group contained Kadri, Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank), Kern, Amaël Moinard (BMC Racing), Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Nissan) and Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis). They soon caught the trio ahead of them, and were gradually reeling in the leaders. Jeandesboz punctured in the front group and, because the gaps were now so small he had no team car behind him, and so dropped out of the break.

Team Sky was not keen to allow Sánchez too much space, since the Spanish rider started the day just 2’02” behind Wiggins, but led the peloton 28 seconds behind the chase group with 20km to go, with the eight-man lead group another 28 seconds ahead. With 16km to go the lack of cohesion in the chase group saw most of them sit up, and Kadri set off alone. The rest were quickly swept up, with the gap to the leaders up to more than a minute once again.

RadioShack-Nissan’s Machado now began to help with the chase and soon caught Kadri, but with 10km to go the eight leaders were still a minute clear. The attacks had begun though, with Navarro jumping off the front with nine to go; he was gradually pulled back by the others, but the cohesion had completely gone from the group and Vichot countered as he was caught.

Into the final five kilometres the Frenchman was ten seconds clear of the others and, although Europcar was now also chasing, the peloton was still 47 seconds back and was unlikely to catch up. At two kilometres Vichot’s lead was up to 24 seconds and, despite his fatigued appearance - with his mouth wide open to gulp in as much oxygen as possible - the FDJ-BigMat rider looked to have done enough.

Into the closing metres the 23-year-old patted the sponsor’s logon on his jersey and, blowing kisses and punching the air, crossed the line to take his biggest ever victory. Martinez won the sprint for second, 25 seconds later, while green jersey Tony Gallopin (RadioShack-Nissan) led the peloton over 59 seconds back.